Now that I’m using Ubuntu Linux on my old PC laptop I’m enjoying it, but can’t figure out how to change the default Web browser from Firefox to Chrome. It’s not like Windows! Help?
All the different flavors of Linux have gone through lots of changes to improve both the user and administrator experience, much of which seems to have been inspired by either the macOS or Windows interface. That’s good, those companies have teams of people working on making things faster, easier and more efficient for us, whether the task is to create a new document or change a default setting in the account configuration.
Still, sometimes a solid knowledge of Windows or Mac can be a bit of a hindrance rather than a help because you can end up making the wrong assumptions about things. Turns out there are a couple of ways you can change the default, but let me show you the easiest path…
To start, click on the gear icon on the top right edge of your Ubuntu Linux screen. It’ll pull down a menu with a number of choices and a list of all known users both:
As highlighted, you want to choose “About This Computer” to pull up a window that offers details of your system and configuration:
Notice you can change your device name right here if you want to type something in and that as suggested by the greyed out “System Up-To-Date” on the lower right, this is also a way to access and apply available system updates if needed.
But what we seek is on the left: Default Applications. Click on it.
You can see that this is how you change the default application used for Web, mail, calendar, music, video and photos. In my case, my default Web browser is already Google Chrome. Yours will still be Firefox, so click on the menu to see what choices you have:
If you don’t see Google Chrome on the list, it might be because you haven’t installed it yet. Just go to google.com/chrome to grab a copy!
Done. While you’re here, though, click on “Removable Media” since these are more settings worth viewing to ensure that they’re as you desire:
More interestingly, this turns out to be a just one of a large number of control panels that you can access and tweak in Ubuntu Linux. Click on the tab “All Settings” to see what I mean:
Lots to explore. I’ll leave you to it. And enjoy Google Chrome on your Ubuntu Linux laptop!